1. Field
Conventional 3D digital image taking products, such as 3D digital cameras, 3D digital camcorders and the like, are typically based on either dual digital camera systems or dual lens and sensor digital camera systems. These systems rely on extraordinary mechanisms to maintain both optical and mechanical synchronization while capturing 3D stereoscopic left-right image pairs, thus causing products to be too complicated and expensive.
There are also a few ideas for 3D digital image taking that use a single digital camera with a single lens and sensor. However, all of those ideas fall into problems such as un-simultaneous left and right image capturing, unrealistic and inflexible distance between left and right view, un-normal aspect ratio, un-adjustable convergence angle, very low usage of image sensor area, or the optical adapter blocks detectors and flashlight on the camera, and so on. Therefore, it is not practical to make a 3D digital camera product according to those ideas.
2. Prior Art
In a prior art U.S. Pat. No. 1,454,218, Mar. 8, 1923 described a dual lenses 3D adaptor. This adaptor can only output un-normal wide panoramic aspect ratio 2.67:1 due to the left and right images are located up to down. Besides, it requires people to adjust both lenses individually for taking a 3D image because it has no synchronization for left and right lenses.
In another prior art U.S. Pat. No. 2,313,561, Mar. 9, 1941, described a single lens 3D adaptor approach. This adaptor directly applies the traditional Tri-Delta optical mechanism, so that the adaptor has all disadvantages that traditional Tri-Delta has, such as too big to fit on a camera, too complicated to make a viewer/finder, vertically image outputting, and so on.
Furthermore, in 3D cameras, conventional methods for saving and transferring 3D stereoscopic left-right digital image pairs, are either to format left and right images into one image by locating them horizontally side by side then save and transfer them as a single 2D image; or to save them individually as two separated images and transfer them alternatively one followed the other, for instance, the MPO format which is used in Fujifilm W1 3D camera. The first method duplicates the complication of the image and it is incompatible with normal 2D digital image processes that read each image by scanning the horizontal pixel lines. The second method not only breaks the relationship of left and right images causing complications in 3D digital image process and management, but also breaks the similarity between images while transferring or streaming 3D digital images (e.g. 3D digital video); of cause, it is hardly compatible with normal 2D image processes as well.